- NASA PLANS A MISSION TO EUROPA. This was identified as the "second highest priority Flagship mission for the decade" in the National Research Council planetary science decadal survey, which called for a mission for "characterization of Europa's ocean and interior, ice shell, chemistry and composition, and the geology of prospective landing sites." NASA has allocated 15 million in fiscal 2015 for this mission, but it's unclear if it's going to be a big mission or a small one as the agency is still talking with the science community (and presumably checking its budget, although officials didn't say that). If this goes through, it would fly in the 2020s.Reprocessed Galileo image of Europa's frozen surface by Ted Stryk (NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk)- NASA'S HUMANS-TO-ASTEROID MISSION GETS SOME MORE MONEY. The agency requests 133 million for goals including "advancing solar electric propulsion and capture systems, and conduct of the Mission Concept Review in which the mission architecture will be established." During the conference call with reporters, Bolden said the asteroid capture mission is a key step for NASA's aim to have a manned Mars mission in the 2030s.- FUNDING CONTINUES FOR NASA'S COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM AND ORION/SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM PROGRAM. It remains to be seen if the amounts allocated will be enough for what industry insiders hope for, but on a numbers basis, the Orion/SLS infrastructure funding falls to 2.78 billion (down 12% from 3.115 billion in FY 2014) and commercial crew funding increases to 848.3 million (up 20% from 696 million in FY 2014). Note the 2014 numbers are not finalized yet. NASA says the commercial funding will allow the program to maintain "competition", although details are under wraps as the agency is evaluating proposals.- THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS EXTENDED TO 2024. That news was made public in early January, but technically speaking that is a part of the fiscal 2015 budget.There's far more to the budget that could be covered in a single news article, and it should be noted there was an entire aviation component as well. We encourage you to check out the budget documents below for the full story so far.- 2015 budget presentation- 2015 budget overview- 2015 budget overall fact sheet- 2015 budget category fact sheets (science, aeronautics research, space technology, etc.)
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/110007/budget-2015-flying-sofia-telescope-to-be-shelved-for-higher-priority-programs-like-cassini/#ixzz2v5m0tdXw
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